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THE RANGER&039;S JOURNEY

The sound of battle echoed up the corridor and into the main room of the tower Canthan snarled at the noise but refused to turn away from the tome He felt certain there were y le and huical, the runes wereof how the castle had coy that had facilitated the construction, but there wasreical runes even then appearing on the pageof steel distracted hi from one foot to the other in the middle of the room Ellery came out of one tunnel, and cut to the side froate eerkhan and Arrayan leaned over the railing, looking doith concern

"Who?" Ellery asked

"Gotta be the ranger," Pratcus answered

Ellery ran toward the sound "Which tunnel?" she asked, for the torches in all had gone dark again, and the echoes of the sounds confused her

All eyes went to the dwarf, but Pratcus just shrugged

Then froht had come

"Just keep therowled, and he forced his attention back to the open book

Another egg fell and broke open, and that made five

Mariabronne finished the first with a two-handed overhead chop, but he was too busy leaping away from fiery daemon breath to applaud hi, and slashing, scoring hit after hit, and he came to realize that the creatures could only breathe their fire on hi on each He took a few hits and gave a fewfrom above, he leaped over and shouldered the brazier to the floor

The rattling stopped

There would be no ainst him All he had to do was hold out until his coed but skidded to a stop and cut to the side He used the sarcophagi as shields and kept the clawing, smoky hands at bay

His smile appeared onceMariabronne who had rightly earned the nickname "the Rover" and had also earned a rakish reputation with ladies all across Damara His sense of adventure overwhele of disaster, of freedoer

"Are all of Gehenna so slow?" he tried to say, to taunt the daehed up blood

The ranger froze He brought his free hand up to his neck to feel the blood still pu A wave of dizziness nearly dropped him

He had to dive aside as two of the daemons loosed cones of fire at hiet back to his feet - and when he did, he overbalanced so badly that he nearly staggered headlong into a third of the beasts

"Priest, I need you!" Mariabronne the Rover shouted through the blood, and all at once he wasn&039;t so confident and exuberant "Priest! Dwarf, I need you!"

Entreri and Jarlaxle rushed into the roo froate started that way

Then came the desperate call froate, hold the balcony!" Ellery ordered "The rest with nored the cohts, he pictured the doo was that sensation that he never paused long enough to consider it He sprinted past the dwarf and hit the stairs running, taking theh the door and his companions were on the balcony to the left

Then he cut back sharply to the left and leaped up to the slanted stairway railing in a dead run His lead foot hit and started to slide, but the assassin sta and leaped away, spinning as he went so that when he lifted up near the floor of the balcony, his back was to the railing He threw his hands up and caught the balusters, and with the others on the floor below looking at hi open, Entreri&039;s tauthis feet up over his head Not only was his backward flip over the railing perfectly executed, not only did he land lightly and in perfect balance, but on the way over he er and sword

He spun as he landed and threw hi in a scything ind Gray wrappings exploded into the air, flying all around him

Down below, Jarlaxle looked to Ellery and said, "Consider the rooed one quick look the drow&039;s way as she sprinted toward the tunnel entrances

"Which one?" she asked again of Pratcus, who ran beside her

"Yerself to the right, meself to the left!" the dwarf replied, and they split into the two possible openings

Jarlaxle followed right behind theate ra to catch up

Torches flared to life as Ellery ran through A split second later, Pratcus&039;s heavy strides si corridor

"Which one, then?" Athrogate asked Jarlaxle

"Here!" Ellery cried before the drow could answer, and both Jarlaxle and Athrogate took up the chase of the woman warrior

In the other tunnel, Pratcus, too, heard the call, just as he passed the second set of torches, which flared to life The dwarf instinctively slowed but shook his head Perhaps his tunnel would intersect with the other and he wouldn&039;t have to lose all the tiht up onesidelong so that he could quickly spin around if the light didn&039;t reveal an intersection

But the torches didn&039;t ignite

Instead ca sound, and Pratcus just happened to be looking the right way to see the iron spike slide out of the wall

He thought to throw hied to cry out The spike ut and drove hi, plunging right through the dwarf and ringing hard against the stone behind hirabbed at the stake He tried to gather his wits, to call upon his gods for so But the dwarf knew that he&039;d need le He drove his sword through a daemon&039;s head, tore it free and decapitated another as he sildly All the rooing as he went for the last pair of daemons

His consciousness flitted away; he felt the rake of claws He lifted an arm to defend himself and a eneral darkness He felt cold so cold

Mariabronne the Rover suth and went into a sudden and violent frenzy, slashing wildly, punching and kicking

Then the ranger&039;s journey was before hi his adventurous spirit

He was at peace